Gun ownership in Japan

Media inconsistency when Clinton and the NRA propose the same policy?

I have real problems with the expensive program of putting uniformed guards in schools. It is not only expensive, but, since the guards are readily identifiable, they would likely be the first targets in any attack. Still it is interesting to see how the proposal is greeted by the media depending on who makes it.

12/28/2012

So how hard is it to own a gun in Germany?

With the public school shootings in Germany, it might be worth noting how hard it is to legally own a gun in that country. New registration figures indicate that there are 1.4 million people who legally own guns in the country out of a population of 81.8 million people --- a 1.7 percent rate. Of course, the illegal rate of gun ownership is presumably quite different.

Obama campaign promise: "I Am Not Going To Take Your Guns Away"

"I just want to be absolutely clear. Alright, I don't want any misunderstanding when you all go home and you are talking to your buddies. 'He wants to take your guns away.'I believe in the Second Amendment. I believe in people's lawful right to bear arms. I will not take your shotgun away. I will not take your rifle away. I won't take your handgun away," President Obama said at a campaign event in Lebanon, Virginia in fall of 2008.

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson resigns over apparent content of emails written under pseudonym

Apparently, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson as well as the Obama administration has not admitted that the reason for her leaving the administration has anything to do with the emails that she sent out using a pseudonym. What may have caused her concern is not the fact that she sent out these emails using a pseudonym but apparently the content of the emails. Obama praised Jackson, but did not criticize her in anyway for her email activity. Her use of these emails would at least seem to break Obama's promise of transparency, and that promise appears to have been further broken by Obama not admitting that the emails served as the reason for her leaving. From Fox News:

One of the problems with background checks for gun purchases

Before I have written about how virtually all the denials from background checks are false positives and there is also the problem that about 8 percent or so of background checks are anything but "instant," now comes an example of a different type of problem with a state system.

Can you image the costs that this imposes on how a gun show operates? Gun shows are a way that people can buy guns inexpensively for self defense. Making this costly will harm poor

The lag comes with the Tanner Gun Show set to start this weekend. The show's co-owner Ty Blount says the lag means dealers will either mail a gun to a customer or meet the customer again later once the background check has cleared. . . .

A reminder that criminals are killing criminals.

A 2007 article from USA Today, but something still worth remembering. Also note that about 90 percent of the murderers also have a criminal record.

In Baltimore, about 91% of murder victims this year had criminal records, up from 74% a decade ago, police reported. . . .
Philadelphia police Capt. Ben Naish says the Baltimore numbers are "shocking." Philadelphia also has seen the number of victims with criminal pasts inch up — to 75% this year from 71% in 2005.
In Milwaukee, local leaders created the homicide commission after a spike in violence led to a 39% increase in murders in 2005. The group compiled statistics on victims' criminal histories for the first time and found that 77% of homicide victims in the past two years had an average of nearly 12 arrests. . . .
In Newark, where three young friends with no apparent links to crime were executed Aug. 4, roughly 85% of victims killed in the first six months of this year had criminal records, on par with the percentage in 2005 but up from 81% last year, police statistics show. . . .

Does anyone think that there will be a multiple victim public shooting in Utah?

Utah teachers taking free classes to carry guns at school. This is just a small increase in the number of teachers who already have permits in the state. Again, is there one problem that has occurred with these teachers carrying? No. From Fox News.

The Utah Shooting Sports Council said it would waive its $50 fee for concealed-weapons training for the teachers. Instruction featuring plastic guns is set to begin at noon Thursday inside a conference room at Maverick Center, a hockey arena in the Salt Lake City suburb of West Valley.

It's an idea gaining traction in the aftermath of the Connecticut school shooting. In Ohio, the Buckeye Firearms Association said it was launching a test program in tactical firearms training for 24 teachers initially. . . .

Educators say Utah legislators left them with no choice but to accept some guns in schools. State law forbids schools, districts or college campuses from trying to impose their own gun restrictions. . . .

Does Obama want to go over the Fiscal Cliff? Some Democrats sure think so

PAT CADDELL: . . . This president is on vacation. I give you a plan that no one should vote for but here you go.DOUG SCHOEN: Did you see what he said to Boehner last week? Which is I will go after you in the State of the Union and in the inaugural if you don't come along. Not, 'I have a plan that the American people want.' So, I really think he wants to go over the cliff.CADDELL: . . . Boehner said, look I have given you $800 billion in taxes, don't I get anything for that, and the president said "no." He said: "That's Free, that is mine."

Its cause: "We want to keep Piers Morgan in the USA. There are two
very good reasons for this," the authors of the petition write.
"Firstly, the first amendment. Second and the more important point. No
one in the U.K. wants him back."

"Actually, there is a third," they add. "It will be hilarious to see how loads of angry Americans react." . . .

Morgan became a lightning rod in the ongoing gun control debate when he
spoke out against pro-gun advocates last week. Morgan called Larry
Pratt, executive director of Gun Owners for America, "dangerous,"
"stupid," and "an idiot." The next night, he told John Lott, the author
of More Guns, Less Crime that he needed "to stop repeating a blatant lie about what happens in other countries." . . .

But the funniest thing is the British petition by Brits who say that they don't want Piers back in Britain. From the UK Daily Mail:

“NBC contacted [the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department] inquiring if they could utilize a high capacity magazine for their segment,” Gwendolyn Crump, a police spokeswoman, said in an email. “NBC was informed that possession of a high capacity magazine is not permissible and their request was denied. This matter is currently being investigated.” . . . .

Any bets on whether the laws apply equally to David Gregory and the average citizen in DC?

But law abiding citizens, not criminals, obey these bans. Instead of making places safer, disarming law abiding citizens left them sitting ducks.

Killers go where victims can't defend themselves. In the Aurora, Colo., movie theater shooting, out of seven theaters showing the Batman movie premiere within 20 minutes of the suspect's apartment, only one banned permitted concealed handguns. The suspect didn't go to the closest nor the largest, but to the one that banned self-defense. Time after time the story is the same. . . .

After my piece being up on the USA Today website for about 28 hours, the vote on my piece looked like this (82 percent agree, 16 percent disagree):

By contrast, the vote on the USA Today editorial board piece looked like this (39 percent agree with them, 59 percent disagree):

It's an old story by now, this venomous lashing-out at blacks and other minorities who embrace conservative or Republican values. It especially infuriates the Democratic left to see the enthusiasm black conservatives inspire among Republicans. Far from celebrating the fact that minorities can demonstrate appeal across the political spectrum, the left whips out the race card. The rise of black Republican leaders, they say, is just a thin disguise for GOP racism. Yet if Republicans oppose a black Democratic leader, they call that racism too.

Mayor of Los Angeles, Antonio Villaraigosa believes that America needs a federal law to gain control of assault weapons. Villaraigosa believes that the company has a responsibility to not cultivate a culture of violence. From other perspective, the author John Lott, author of the book 'more weapons, less violence', believes that take weapons off the law-abiding would cause the opposite effect.

Appearance on CNBC's Kudlow Report on Gun-free Zone

John Lott, author of "More Guns, Less Crime," weighs in on the rush to reduce the number of guns; and CNBC's Mary Thompson reports whether legal action is coming following the deadly Connecticut elementary school shooting.

12/24/2012

Another measure of mass shootings over time

One measure of multiple victim public shootings is available here. Looking at this, my initial reaction is that it doesn't differentiate between gang fights and the type of attacks that have garnered so much attention at Newtown, Columbine, and other places. This "counted a mass shooting as any murder where four or more people were killed at once."Fox News has a story available here.Another Fox News piece on Ron Paul's objection to the NRA proposal on putting police at schools. I have to agree that I don't see the point of federalizing this. State should have the right incentive to fix this problem.

Patterson, who wrote Texas’ original concealed carry law as a state legislator and is running for lieutenant governor in 2014, has long favored allowing concealed weapons in schools. But his idea seem to be gaining steam. Texas Gov. Rick Perry told a Tea Party group this week he wants a law allowing teachers to carry concealed weapons in school. . . .While Texas is the center of the movement, governors in Tennessee and Virginia have also signaled openness to allowing guns on school grounds.“If people were armed, not just a police officer, but other school officials that were trained and chose to have a weapon, certainly there would be an opportunity to stop an individual trying to get into the school,” Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell said on WTOP, a local radio station. . . .A South Carolina House member introduced legislation there earlier this week. The Florida legislator who wrote the state’s “Stand Your Ground” law and an Arizona gun rights group have also proposed arming trained teachers“In our zealousness to protect people from harm we’ve created all these gun-free zones and what we’ve inadvertently done is we’ve made them a target,” Florida GOP Rep. Dennis Baxley told the AP. “A helpless target is exactly what a deranged person is looking for where they cannot be stopped.” . . .In Michigan, it is legal to carry a pistol in schools — as long as the weapon isn’t concealed. Patterson pointed out several school districts in Texas have armed police forces. And Utah, Oregon and New Hampshire already allow concealed carry in schools, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. . . .

Two interviews with Mark Levin on the Newtown, CT school shootings

A partial list of the 206 college campuses that allow students to carry concealed handguns

The National Conference of State Legislatures notes-- 5 states now have provisions allowing the carrying of concealed weapons on public postsecondary campuses. These states are Colorado, Mississippi, Oregon, Utah, and Wisconsin. -- 23 states the decision to ban or allow concealed carry weapons on campuses is made by each college or university individually: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and West Virginia.-- 21 (actually 22 if you include Illinois) states that ban carrying a concealed weapon on a college campus: Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Wyoming.According to Students for Concealed Carry there are 206 colleges that allow this. Here is a partial list.